[en] The Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory often observes low ionization state coronal mass ejection (CME) plasma at ultraviolet wavelengths. The CME plasmas are often detected in O VI (3 × 10⁵ K), C III (8 × 10⁴ K), Lyα, and Lyβ, with the low ionization plasma confined to bright filaments or blobs that appear in small segments of the UVCS slit. On the other hand, in situ observations by the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer on board Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) have shown mostly high ionization state plasmas in the magnetic clouds in interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) events, while low ionization states are rarely seen. In this analysis, we investigate whether the low ionization state CME plasmas observed by UVCS occupy small enough fractions of the CME to be consistent with the small fraction of ACE ICMEs that show low ionization plasma, or whether the CME plasma must be further ionized after passing the UVCS slit. To do this, we determine the covering factors of low ionization state plasma for 10 CME events. We find that the low ionization state plasmas in CMEs observed by UVCS show average covering factors below 10%. This indicates that the lack of low ionization state ICME plasmas observed by the ACE results from a small probability that the spacecraft passes through a region of low ionization plasma. We also find that the low ionization state plasma covering factors in faster CMEs are smaller than in slower CMEs.

[en] The Coulomb equilibration time scale among various particle species behind a fast collisionless shock can be much larger than the dynamical time scale in a supernova remnant or CME. Ultraviolet and optical emission line profiles can be used to measure proton, electron and ion temperatures. Particles are fairly close to thermal equilibrium behind a relatively slow (350 km/s) shock, but very far from equilibrium in faster (2000-3000 km/s) shocks

[en] We present a grid of nonequilibrium ionization models for the X-ray spectra from supernova remnants undergoing efficient diffusive shock acceleration. The calculation follows the hydrodynamics of the blast wave as well as the time-dependent ionization of the plasma behind the shock. The ionization state is passed to a plasma emissivity code to compute the thermal X-ray emission, which is combined with the emission from nonthermal synchrotron emission to produce a self-consistent model for the thermal and nonthermal emission from cosmic-ray dominated shocks. We show how plasma diagnostics such as the G'-ratio of He-like ions, defined as the ratio of the sum of the intercombination, forbidden, and satellite lines to the resonance line, can vary with acceleration efficiency, and discuss how the thermal X-ray emission, when the time-dependent ionization is not calculated self-consistently with the hydrodynamics, can differ from the thermal X-ray emission from models which do account for the hydrodynamics. Finally, we compare the thermal X-ray emission from models which show moderate acceleration (∼35%) to the thermal X-ray emission from test-particle models.

[en] G54.1+0.3 is a young pulsar wind nebula (PWN), closely resembling the Crab, for which no thermal shell emission has been detected in X-rays. Recent Spitzer observations revealed an infrared (IR) shell containing a dozen point sources arranged in a ring-like structure, previously proposed to be young stellar objects. An extended knot of emission located in the NW part of the shell appears to be aligned with the pulsar's X-ray jet, suggesting a possible interaction with the shell material. Surprisingly, the IR spectrum of the knot resembles the spectrum of freshly formed dust in Cas A, and is dominated by an unidentified dust emission feature at 21 μm. The spectra of the shell also contain various emission lines and show that some are significantly broadened, suggesting that they originate in rapidly expanding supernova (SN) ejecta. We present the first evidence that the PWN is driving shocks into expanding SN ejecta and we propose an alternative explanation for the origin of the IR emission in which the shell is composed entirely of SN ejecta. In this scenario, the freshly formed SN dust is being heated by early-type stars belonging to a cluster in which the SN exploded. Simple dust models show that this interpretation can give rise to the observed shell emission and the IR point sources.

[en] Upper limits on the shock speeds in supernova remnants can be combined with post-shock temperatures to obtain upper limits on the ratio of cosmic ray to gas pressure (P _CR/P_G ) behind the shocks. We constrain shock speeds from proper motions and distance estimates, and we derive temperatures from X-ray spectra. The shock waves are observed as faint Hα filaments stretching around the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant in two epochs of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS) separated by 39.1 years. We measured proper motions of 18 nonradiative filaments and derived shock velocity limits based on a limit to the Cygnus Loop distance of 576 ± 61 pc given by Blair et al. for a background star. The Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) instrument on-board ROSAT observed the X-ray emission of the post-shock gas along the perimeter of the Cygnus Loop, and we measure post-shock electron temperature from spectral fits. Proper motions range from 2.''7 to 5.''4 over the POSS epochs and post-shock temperatures range from kT ∼ 100-200 eV. Our analysis suggests a cosmic ray to post-shock gas pressure consistent with zero, and in some positions P _CR is formally smaller than zero. We conclude that the distance to the Cygnus Loop is close to the upper limit given by the distance to the background star and that either the electron temperatures are lower than those measured from ROSAT PSPC X-ray spectral fits or an additional heat input for the electrons, possibly due to thermal conduction, is required.

[en] Many fast supernova remnant shocks show spectra dominated by Balmer lines. The Hα profiles have a narrow component explained by direct excitations and a thermally Doppler broadened component due to atoms that undergo charge exchange in the post-shock region. However, the standard model does not take into account the cosmic-ray shock precursor, which compresses and accelerates plasma ahead of the shock. In strong precursors with sufficiently high densities, the processes of charge exchange, excitation, and ionization will affect the widths of both narrow and broad line components. Moreover, the difference in velocity between the neutrals and the precursor plasma gives rise to frictional heating due to charge exchange and ionization in the precursor. In extreme cases, all neutrals can be ionized by the precursor. In this Letter we compute the ion and electron heating for a wide range of shock parameters, along with the velocity distribution of the neutrals that reach the shock. Our calculations predict very large narrow component widths for some shocks with efficient acceleration, along with changes in the broad-to-narrow intensity ratio used as a diagnostic for the electron-ion temperature ratio. Balmer lines may therefore provide a unique diagnostic of precursor properties. We show that heating by neutrals in the precursor can account for the observed Hα narrow component widths and that the acceleration efficiency is modest in most Balmer line shocks observed thus far.

[en] We report the discovery of a strong emission line near 24.8 Å (0.5 keV) in the newly discovered X-ray binary system MAXI J0556–332 with the reflection grating spectrometer (RGS) on board the XMM-Newton observatory. The X-ray light curve morphology during these observations is complex and shows occasional dipping behavior. Here we present time- and rate-selected spectra from the RGS and show that this strong emission line is unambiguously present in all the XMM observations. The measured line center is consistent with the Lyα transition of N VII in the rest frame. While the spectra contain imprints of absorption lines and edges, there appear to be no other significantly prominent narrow line due to the source itself, thus making the identification of the 24.8 Å line uncertain. We discuss possible physical scenarios, including a gravitationally redshifted O VIII Lyα line originating at the surface of a neutron star or an unusual donor with an extremely high N/O abundance (>57) relative to solar that may have produced this comparatively strong emission line.

[en] We investigate the heating of an erupting prominence and loops associated with a coronal mass ejection and X-class flare. The prominence is seen as absorption in EUV at the beginning of its eruption. Later, the prominence changes to emission, which indicates heating of the erupting plasma. We find the densities of the erupting prominence using the absorption properties of hydrogen and helium in different passbands. We estimate the temperatures and densities of the erupting prominence and loops seen as emission features using the differential emission measure method, which uses both EUV and X-ray observations from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the X-ray Telescope on board Hinode . We consider synthetic spectra using both photospheric and coronal abundances in these calculations. We verify the methods for the estimation of temperatures and densities for the erupting plasmas. Then, we estimate the thermal, kinetic, radiative loss, thermal conduction, and heating energies of the erupting prominence and loops. We find that the heating of the erupting prominence and loop occurs strongly at early times in the eruption. This event shows a writhing motion of the erupting prominence, which may indicate a hot flux rope heated by thermal energy release during magnetic reconnection.

[en] Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence is ubiquitous in the process of solar eruptions, and it is crucial for the fast release of energy and the formation of complex thermal structures that have been found in observations. In this paper, we focus on the turbulence in two specific regions: inside the current sheet (CS) and above the flare loops, considering the standard flare model. The gravitationally stratified solar atmosphere is used in MHD simulations, which include the Lundquist number of S = 10⁶, thermal conduction, and radiative cooling. The numerical results are generally consistent with previous simulation work, especially the thermal structures and reconnection rate in flare phases. We can observe the formation of multiple termination shocks (TSs) as well as plasmoid collisions, which make the region above the loop-top more turbulent and heat plasmas to the higher temperature. The spectrum studies show that the property of the MHD turbulence inside the CS is anisotropic, while it is quasi-isotropic above the loop-top. The magnetic spectrum becomes softer when the plasmoids interact with the multiple TSs. Meanwhile, synthetic images and light curves of the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly 94, 131, 171, 304, and 193 Å channels show intermittent radiation enhancement by turbulence above the loop-top. The spectrum study of the radiation intensity in these five wavelengths gives quite different power indices at the same time. In particular, quasiperiodic pulsations (QPPs) in the turbulent region above the loop-top are investigated, and we also confirm that the heating for plasmas via turbulence is an important contributor to the source of QPPs.

[en] We investigate seven eruptive plasma observations by Hinode/XRT. Their corresponding EUV and/or white light coronal mass ejection features are visible in some events. Five events are observed in several passbands in X-rays, which allows for the determination of the eruptive plasma temperature using a filter ratio method. We find that the isothermal temperatures vary from 1.6 to 10 MK. These temperatures are an average weighted toward higher temperature plasma. We determine the mass constraints of eruptive plasmas by assuming simplified geometrical structures of the plasma with isothermal plasma temperatures. This method provides an upper limit to the masses of the observed eruptive plasmas in X-ray passbands since any clumping causes the overestimation of the mass. For the other two events, we assume the temperatures are at the maximum temperature of the X-ray Telescope (XRT) temperature response function, which gives a lower limit of the masses. We find that the masses in XRT, ∼3 × 10¹³-5 × 10¹⁴ g, are smaller in their upper limit than the total masses obtained by LASCO, ∼1 × 10¹⁵ g. In addition, we estimate the radiative loss, thermal conduction, thermal, and kinetic energies of the eruptive plasma in X-rays. For four events, we find that the thermal conduction timescales are much shorter than the duration of eruption. This result implies that additional heating during the eruption may be required to explain the plasma observations in X-rays for the four events